Once a physicist who built a gamma bomb which was then stolen, the man later called the Thunderball was jailed after he tried to recover it. He there met the Wrecker and gained his powers. They joined forces with the Piledriver and the Bulldozer to form the Wrecking Crew.

Origin

Dirk Garthwaite, the Wrecker, told the Thunderball and the other two members of the Wrecking Crew to hold his crowbar during a lightning storm. A lightning bolt struck the crowbar, distributing the powers its Asgardian enchantments conferred upon Garthwaite among the four of them. The Thunderball was also one of the villains whom the Beyonder gathered during the Secret Wars.

The Thunderball's real name is Dr. Eliot Franklin, and before he became the Thunderball, he was a physicist with a Ph.D in physics, possessed of a genius-level I.Q. His genius is made apparent by the fact that he created the gamma bomb(something even Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was unable to do), and also later miniaturized the gamma bomb.

Creation

Known preferred weapons

The Thunderball's trademark weapon is his ball and chain, upon which Asgardian enchantments have conferred magical properties and which will return to the Thunderball whenever he throws it as a projectile attack. The ball and chain is nearly indestructible, and the Thunderball is capable of deflecting bullets with it when he spins it before him with tremendous speed.